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For those interested in helping children to learn to read with phonics, the most recent research in this area has led to the following guidelines being put forward.

Before any program of phonics work is published it should be checked to ensure that the following criteria are met: Presentation of high quality systematic phonics program should be the chief element used to decipher the printed word. The primary aims for the average child is that by age 5 they have gained sufficient phonics skills to enable them to then, by age 10, be fluent readers. The program needs to be based on the provision of daily separate lessons designed to stimulate progress form simpler through to more complex phonics skill acquisition. That the program includes regular progress assessment. The system needs to be based on multi-sensory methodology that includes sights, sounds and movement. The program needs to teach how words can be broken down into sounds and then written down and how sounds can be blended to form words. The program should teach children to use phonics as the main tool for reading even in cases where the word is not ‘phonically regular’. That common words that do not conform to regular phonics rules be taught to children. That children at the outset are given texts to read where although most of the words can be decoded using their phonics skills, there may be some words that they still need help to read

1. As opposed to a method or way of teaching children to read, phonics should be regarded as an accumulation of knowledge and skills about how the alphabet works. Following on from this children should not be asked to guess words from things like pictures before they have tried to read the word using phonic skills. Any good phonics program should teach several things. The correspondences between letters and sounds in a well developed and tested progression. The most important skill of blending sounds together in the right order to form words The ability to break words into constituent sounds to aid spelling That the blending and segmentation of words are the reverse of each other

2. Obviously teacher’s professional judgment should be used, but as a general guideline children should embark on a phonics program by the age of five years, with the expectation that they become fluent readers by the age of 10.

3. The program should introduce a defined initial group of consonants and vowels, enabling children, early on, to read and spell many simple words.

4. Any program that is well built and structured by its nature will then allow progression through phonics skills that can be mapped against childrens progress. In this case any children falling behind can be identified and provided with any extra help needed.

5. Teaching elements that use other senses (sound, sight and movement) need to be fun and interesting and targeted at teaching a specific phonics skill. It is important to avoid activities that are too complex or involved or that are not directed at achieving a specific phonics learning goal. If this is not the case the result is that the child will normally lose interest and learning objectives will not be achieved.

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